Stained Glass Journal Archive

Stained Glass Designs

I have ideas for windows that have no where to go and no client to make them for.

For starters, I imagine a church filled with windows that depict the life of Christ as scenes from a construction site. You know how all the scenes from the life of Christ are very specific down to the gestures of the people and placement. So, what if I took the postures and gave them to a construction crew. It would be subtle though. When you first look at them, the windows look like a construction site with all the props: scaffolding, hard hats, weird lights on strings, sparks, stacks of raw material, and dizzying heights. If you look at them for a while though, the scene would imply the Resurrection, crucifixion, accession, and so on.

I would like to design windows for people I greatly admire. I would make one and send it without prior notice. Jimmy Carter immediately comes to mind with his focus on humanitarian issues, religion, and poetry. It seems to me that each of us is made up of different spiritual backgrounds that go hand in hand with our cultural backgrounds. It is like our spirit realm fingerprint. I can make a window to honor the individual spirit that each person creates around him or her as its own thing.

I would like to create windows about how symbols were picked in history. For example, I would create a window commemorating Emperor Constantine's vision of a cross superimposed over the sun and his mother's involvement. This cross became a new focus for Christianity as a union of Sun worship and Messianic belief. Or maybe a window about the cult of the virgin in Europe before it was absorbed by the Christian story.

Reverse Painting on Glass

I started painting a sketch of mine as a reverse oil painting on glass. I used the sketch to design a window nine years ago. In this process, you take a piece of clear glass and flip your sketch to paint it in reverse. When it is done, you flip the glass back over so that the glass faces out and the paint backward. It seems to be another great source of learning that relates to stained glass painting. They both share a reverse order of how you paint.

In reverse oil painting, the highlights are painted first so that they are not covered up by additional layers. In stained glass painting tonal painting, first the piece of glass is covered in paint, the paint dries and then highlights are created by removing paint. The darker tones are created by paint that is left behind.

If you look at how oil painting on canvas was classically developed, sepia tones are painted first. Oil painters call this underpainting. It is a brown sketch used to block in the elements of the painting. Highlights in oil painting are added last with white paints.

When I finish my current painting, I will add it to this site.

Also, I can across someone who paints on glass using high doses of electricity. His paintings are featured in some sci-fi movies and shows.

Stained Glass Painter

Here is some basic information for stained glass painters on paints and kilns.

The best suppler of glass painting tools and paint is Reusche Company. I get almost all of my stuff from them with some paint in a pinch from Standard Ceramic in Pittsburgh. The paint used in ceramic glazes is similar to the paint used in stained glass. I wonder if other local ceramic paint suppliers around the US may also carry stained glass paints.

I tried to find a deal on a Hoaf Speedburner kiln for years. It is a great propane based kiln that has no electrical hook-up unless you buy the optional automated shut-off system. With all cost involved in the size that I wanted, over seas shipping and domestic freight, it came out to $5000.00. I fell in love with this kiln when I worked for Pittsburgh Stained Glass. It has a quick turn around time on firing and was cheap to operate. I figured that each fire was costing them $.25 and it only took a little over an hour to fire a load of glass. I finally settled on buying a kiln of the same size from Denver Glass Machinery instead though for around $3000.00. It has a 220 electrical hook-up and the same hour turn around time on a load of glass.

You can use many different types and brands of glass to paint on. The best test is to try firing a piece of glass a few times in a kiln to figure out if it is stable enough for painting. Red glass from most domestic suppliers is the least stable color often turning orange or black when fired. Untextured glass is the best since it gives you a smooth surface to work on and allows you to create a faux texture with gray tones. I really prefer European glass from Lamberts or St. Just. Lamberts, a German company, has a great line of smoky colors, deep reds and purples (often appearing too brown from most manufacturers) and an awesome collection of flashed glass. Their flashed reds and greens are a must have. St. Just or St. Gobain, a French company, has some amazing blues and greens. Both of these companies have a huge pallet of colors designed for painting. For domestic glass, Spectrum has good colors in a reliable smooth glass and Blenko has a line of glass with nice tonal movement in one sheet of glass without being flashed.

Breaking the Wave

Luckily, when I first started in stained glass I happened across a studio that was connected with the America Association of Stained Glass. It is a great resource for information about places to buy supplies and learn about stained glass. The manager of the first studio I ever worked for, Kirk Weaver, really knew a lot. At the time, I didn't realize how much I was learning. I highly recommend taking Dick Millard's summer painting intensive in Antrim NH. I attended an advance painting class back in '96 and learned a ton in a short period of time. Nick Perrendo from Hunt Stained Glass in Pittsburgh does a summer workshop at St. Edmund's Enders Island in Mystic, CT and Peter McGrain has a summer workshop in Buffalo, NY. Both of these guys would also be great to study with.

To be totally honest, when I first started in 94 I had no experience painting on glass. I had just graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a BFA and was interested in trying stained glass. I called every stained glass shop in Pittsburgh trying to get an interview. Every shop turned me down except for Pittsburgh Stained Glass. The cousin of the manger answered the phone by chance and thought that I was replying to an ad he had place in a student newspaper for a laborer. I never saw the ad but luckily the current designer/ painter, Jamie Sacrapointe needed help. She started with me from square one. After a while she left and now works for Willet Studios in Philly. After a while of being the designer there, I left to go on my own.

Sources

I am constantly trying to find just the right treasure chest of images to use as references for window designs and the amount of online photos of churches is huge, to my pleasure. I will add them as I find them for other designers to use and for me to not have to remember. Today I stumbled upon some Christian clothing companies that make me think about re-coopting symbols of contemporary culture and pulling back the skins of time in interesting ways. The most edgy site claims to have the coolest clothing and reminds me of Goth-kids stores popping up in malls. There are a bunch of these Christian-Goth apparel spots that I never knew about. Of course there are the more subdued as they say "secure shopping of quality Christian clothing." These styles go well with a grey scale fashion taste.

Milcho Silianoff

On Sunday I am going to attend a service at the Saltsburg Presbyterian Church in Saltsburg Pennsylvania. There are two windows in the sanctuary that I designed and painted with my brother, Tim Boucher, based upon the artistic stylings of Milcho Silianoff. They are the Baptism of Christ and the Resurrection. These two windows join two others that were the last two Milcho completed before he died. Luckily, I painted the one behind the altar with him. He was an interesting guy with a beaming personality. There are many things I picked up from Milcho: how he painted with no tones letting the trace lines create tones on a larger scale, using darker glass on the outside of the window to soften the transition from the darkness of the edge of the window frame, and how to look at all glass in terms of tone. Charlie Lawrence, another incredible stained glass painter from Philadelphia, told me the same thing one time. He said that the secret to picking glass was to look at the tone of the color. These windows represent this transfer of knowledge from Milcho and my artistic collaboration with my brother. It is the first major piece of art that we have completed together.

In the Beginning

Yesterday, I traveled to Peryopolis, Pennsylvania looking at three Tiffany windows in a staircase landing. The 1913 English Tudor mansion is called Linden Hall and was built by the Cochran family who had money in the coal industry in Pittsburgh. I walked around the house and the grounds, taking pictures for a new window that would replace the Tiffanys. It is sad to see buildings like this in a state of disassembly for parts. I mean, the majority of the house is original, but like so many other historic sites in the US is changing. The mansion is now owned by the United Steelworkers of America. They are my clients on the designing of new replacement windows. I want to stay with the same theme that Tiffany used of these Linden Trees that were planted all over the grounds, brought in from Germany by Mrs. Cochran.

light made solid

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Stained Glass Designs

Friday, August 27, 2004

Reverse Painting on Glass

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Stained Glass Painter

Monday, August 09, 2004

Breaking the Wave

Saturday, August 07, 2004

Sources

Milcho Silianoff

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

In the Beginning